tube amp heroes

Bandito Amps: The Online Mag for Tube Amp Lovers
Volume No. 10-3 March 2010

Tube amp heroes Lock and load amigos! We're headin' down the Mississippi to check in with our newest tube amp builders, Anthony and Obeid from Reason Amps. Huckleberry Finn woulda been proud of these midwestern pioneers of tubology.
Also, a very rare interview with the Boss, Bandito himself (from his secret compound somewhere in the northern hemisphere, shhhh).

Here's our tube amp hero, David Barnes on a hot street machine. One thing David knows is machines. Hence, his slavish dedication to producing the ultimate tube amp. And, because David is constantly building his cool retro Valco reproductions which are now in high demand (yes, there's a waiting list, shit!), we're gonna capture the moment and let him tell us his no b.s. thoughts on tube amps and other thought provoking ideas. So, tube junkies, stop what you're doing and enjoy the tour with David Barnes of Vintage47amps.

DB OK, on the interview, a lot of my building ideas and philosophy the readers can get right off my website, The 'About Valco' page and the 'About Vint47' pages just about say it all in relation to my background, my education and my guiding light for superior amp tone. And, if you want to publish a picture of me, I request that you use the one of me on that blue Salinas Boyz Revtech bike at the bottom of the 'Shop Tour' Page. I'm a few years younger in that picture and it's a good likeness of me, especially the Colt 45 Peace Keeper and the shell belt you can just barely see under the jacket.

Mostly what I am about, is the 'keep it simple' principle and 'don't try to re-invent the wheel' or tube amp in this case. Some other pretty famous names already tried that and now look, everybody wants the 'old designs' that broke the early ground.
It's nice to see that many of the musicians are preserving the blues and rock tradition by keeping the early style songs alive. So, I think that some of the builders should be preserving the amp designs the music was originally recorded on? It's intertwined, this American roots history. If you separate the two, then you end up with only half the story.

Too many good things have been tossed aside in the quest to improve things! Think about the irony of solid state electronics and music. They built circuits to emulate a sound that we already had? I can't be the only person to think there is a flaw in that kind of logic.

Any blues guitar or harp player that confidently knows his craft understands that all you need is one channel with a volume and tone control into a decent speaker to get good, inspirational tone out of your instrument. The mass production companies in the amp business want buyers who, through lack of experience, simply brand name shop for their guitar amplifier. And, the Boo Teek builders want you to think that all the mojo is in a certain over-priced capacitor, resistor, turret board material or other component. But, except for some of phase issues that cause poor sound, the electrons don't give a damn about how much the part cost or what name is on the label of the part!

Look, banditoamps readers, the bottom line is, that if you don't bring it with you when you come to the jam session or show, then just buying tons of brand name gear isn't going to change that.

I can get creamy, full bitch, over the top tone with all the same touch sensitivity from a pile of generic components just as well as the brand name parts. But, where I build in the mojo, is by using good component layout and construction practices. No Voodoo in that Mojo kids! But, to be fair, you should recognize that my layout and building practices have been honed over many years of trial and error in the dark of night in my shop.

The simple speaker choice makes a bigger difference than all that swami high end parts stuff from my experience. So, if you ask me what is the best speaker? The one you like the tone of for your instrument and playing style regardless of cost. I constantly swap around speakers with different circuits and hear tonal characteristic changes from the same amp with each change. What my ear likes, your's may think sucks, so swap speakers until you hear something you like.

If I was to plug a single brand and type of speaker that most consistently yields a broader range of tonal quality, I would have to say the 'Big Red' Alnico 10" and 12" Tone Tubby's are the best. It takes a lot more playing time to break those in than most other speakers but they do consistently yield a broader tonal palate than I have found in any other speaker brand I have used. That's why I'm working with John over at Tone Tubby to build their hemp cones into my Vintage 47 alnico and fieldcoil reissue speakers. That cone material pleases my ear more than any other material I have listened to in my amplifiers!

The bias on the power tubes is another one of those way over tweeked issues in my opinion. Every Valco, Gibson and early Fender amp ever built with a fixed bias resistor on the cathode, left the factory with exactly the same bias resistor value as every other amp coming off the line. None of these early builders gave a minute of thought to the fact that every amp was leaving with a different bias voltage value depending on the tube variables in each amp they built.

I look at it this way. The right bias for your amp is the one that gives you the tone you like to play with. Isn't that what really matters anyway, how it sounds? And, in some cases, the tube life may be shorter at some bias settings, and it may move with the changing of tubes, but the right bias setting is the one where the tone pleases your ear. You can throw the tech bias spec books to the wind I think. I just listen to the music coming out of the amp and adjust the bias accordingly.

Those are just some of my opinions from 40 years of kicking around the electronics neighborhood and not the gospel on the subject by any means. I've got broad shoulders, so I can take the hate mail which usually follows after expressing my opinion! (Look David, you don't know hate mail until you see the harsh stuff Jennifer and Angelina keep sending your Bandito! Yikes! It's worse than that swisher, snuff movie with Howard Stern, Don Rickles and Nancy Pelosi in it. Yeah, you know the one, it was called "The bitch, the bozo and the blowhard shoot their mouths and their wads." Piece of caca for sure.)

Let me summarize by saying this; I believe that good, time tested building practices trump the fancy parts, and speakers make more difference than any other amplifier component. Go with your ear when choosing and setting up which amplifier is right for you and practice your musical craft to get the most out of whatever amp you decide to play. All the rest if just smoke and mirrors boys and girls!

I want to point out to the great banditoamps readers that if they are interested in one of my tube amps they can go to the "How to Buy" page that answers questions about ordering and about special or custom order requests.

www.vintage47amps.com is the website and a good place to start.

Currently, all the sales of my amps are 'internet direct sales only' , and all the contact info is on the "Contact" button on the home page of the website. I have a private (never shared) heads-up email list for anyone wanting to be get advance notice on any newly built amps being posted to the website as they become available. I am also starting an informational Vintage Amplifier Vintage47 Newsletter with tidbits and hints and tips for sound management, upkeep and service for small, old collectible tube amplifiers. (That should be cool. If you mention el Bandito in your tidbits and hints section, I'll get you a director's copy of my new dvd, "Hell's half-breed meets the full metal bitch" in Blueballs format. It's the first underground movie to be banned in Denmark in sixty years! Unfreaking believeable dude.)

Also, people should know that I use to make blank cabinets for builders and hobbyist projects, but I had to stop selling those because I'm so busy now that I need all my cabs to fill the pipeline's current demand for plug and play finished amplifier cab combos.

I have sent my Vintage47 amps to, Japan, Germany, Italy, England, France, Australia, and I have buyers from 10 other countries waiting on the list for a certain model to be available again. In other words, I'm one busy amp builder these days and I'm happy that so many of your readers have already been contacting me. This is a great opportunity for me to get some real big time exposure in this tone crankin' banditoamps magazine.

I pride myself in being a good, old school construction style electronics guy who loves to do my part to keep the old amp history alive! I think my prices are very competitive so get your email to me soon if you dig this style of reproduction tube amp. Thanks to all your readers for their support,

David Barnes Vintage47amps

Alright Dave. You the man!
When you get all caught up, bring that double bitchin' Billy Boy Oahu with the Tone Tubby fire thrower over to the U-Pullem' Parts store in Tiajuana, cuz Little Sancho is getting the vapors he wants to play that amp so bad. Bandy

Oh baby! I got the Vintage 47 Valco repro tone shivers from just lookin' at Dave's cool retro tone queens.

Tired of the same old heehaw b.s. amps down at the internet music stores? Feast your cahones on this loaf pincher Billy Boy Oahu amp from Vintage47amps.

Nothing but nuts, guts and sex appeal for the true tone geeks. Maybe that's why senor Billy himself grabbed the first dozen that David produced? Hmmm, it's a possibility there baldy. And, all this mojo at a price that will leave you enough dineros to take Juanita to the hot bread and coffee parlor.

"Oh Bandy, you so funny. You come heer you leetle fuchie, mama's gonna maika you bread dough rise reel beeg!" Juanita is a working girl for the Jalisco P.D. Be careful cuz this chica is packin'. Know what I mean Vern?

Let's get serious....gasp! Say it ain't so Bandy....sorry esse but we just have to print this latest interview with Anthony and Obeid from Reason Amps. Let's check it out right now:

Anthony; Please answer the following questions for the readers of Banditoamps on-line tube amp magazine:

1. Your website (www.reasonamps.com) talks about your company being born from the ideas of two people. Who are the "two people" and how did this come about?

The two people are me (Anthony Bonadio) and Obeid Khan.

I had been building cabinets in the St. Louis area for the DIY market and small boutique amp companies under the Reason name for a few years. Some mutual friends helped Obeid and I connect. He had been the chief tube audio design engineer for Saint Louis Music (SLM), designing nearly all the tube guitar amps for Crate and Ampeg for the previous 16 years.

SLM was purchased by a group on the west coast and began to dismantle the R&D department. That was a tough time for Obeid, but I was very happy to be able to begin working with him.

2. Who are the amp builders, past or present, and which, if any, tube amplifier designs have inspired you the most?

I have to speak on Obeids behalf, here, but he’s been doing this so long that he doesn’t work or design in the context of any specific builders or any specific amps. Who he is, is certainly built upon all of the guys who came before (and Obeid has quite a collection of old Fenders, Marshalls and Vox amps,) but thinks forward, not back.

2. What are the three (3) most important parts or manufacturing techniques that you believe affect the tone of a tube amplifier?

Design, design and design. A close 4th would be quality execution.

Look, there are no such things as magic parts and a Sozo cap or a Mercury Magnetics transformer won’t fix a poor design.

As far as execution goes, any method can be implemented well and even the best wiring techniques can be screwed up. We’ve seen plenty of point-to-point amps with issues.
Our SM series uses a combination of Turret, Point to point and circuit board techniques. The Bambino line is almost entirely on a circuit board, but we’ve done high quality execution in every instance.

3. I see from visiting your website that you have a unique, and impressive, interactive setup for listening to sound clips of your amps. Tell us a little about how that came about? I can tell you from my experience, that your clips with the Telecaster make that instrument sound ten times better than most tele sound clips I've ever heard.

The site was designed to be like walking into a store- you grab a guitar, pick and amp and then pick a setting. Those clips were done with an SM57 closed mic’d on an open back Green Back 2x12 cab. We have plans to put more effort into clips, but they sound great because the amps just plain deliver. Obeid is a great player and that helps too!

4. What would you recommend to a person buying a tube amplifier for the first time to help them pick the right amp?

Understand what you want the amp to do and understand yourself as a player. Get an amp that does one or two things well and over time add another amp or two that does things that the first does not.

Oh, and buy a quality product made in the free world, even if that means buying used.

5. Do your customers buy direct from your company or from a music store outlet?

We’re still trying to build a dealer network so for now we do some direct sales. If there is a dealer in your state, we’ll always direct a customer to the. Even if there is no dealer for 1000 miles, we’d rather direct someone to a dealer with the item in stock than have the customer wait while we build it. We love our dealers…they certainly earn their keep!

6. Is it hard to find good, top of the line parts for building quality tube amps? Is there a particular transformer company that you like the best? What speakers do you find sound the best with your combo amps?

The toughest part to find in consistently high quality is tubes. When we find a good tube, we buy a bunch and use them as long as we can. Eventually, we find a batch of that tube that has issues, so we switch to another tube that is having a good run. You can’t just shop by brand.

As far as transformers go, we’re very involved in the design process. Heybour Transformer in Grand Haven Michigan builds to our specs and every part is of the highest quality.

As far as speakers go, we’ve settled on the Eminence Governor for our SM series and we use an Eminence Private Jack in the Bambino line. We had been very happy with Celestion, but the Eminence line lacks for nothing, so we decided we’d rather have a British speaker design that was made in Kentucky rather than a British speaker design that was made in China.

7. Do you take special orders on amps? That is, can a customer call you and ask you to voice an amp a special way, or ask you to make it run an uncommon set of power tubes, or other "off the wall" amp building scenarios? Do you charge by the minute if a guy really wants to go 'oddball'?

Not really. We put an enormous amount of work into each design and change one sections can set off a domino effect. We’d rather establish the Reason sound than conform to various whims.

8. Your new model, the 'Bambino' is some hot little chili pepper of an amplifier. What has been the response to this amp, and did you intentionally backdoor swipe that name as a play on my name 'Bandito' because you knew it would sell amps?!!!

Ha, ha! The Bambino has been very well received. It is such a well thought out amp. We worked on that project for nearly 2 years until it came to the point where it met all of the objectives we had for it. The biggest design objective was to achieve “big” amp feel at low SPL’s. We’ve achieved that in spades. Add the Reason StackMode front end and you have a small amp that I think out performs anything in it’s power class.

9. Since you guys have your factory in St. Louis, MO-town, and the rumor is that everyone in St. Louie is packin' heat, do you keep a Gorilla and some Rotweillers in the shop at night just to keep the locals honest? Follow-up question: If I decide to come visit, can you send some 'muscle' to the airport?

Ha! We’re out in the burbs where you’re more likely to get run over by a housewife in a mini van. You’re always welcome and we can assure our safety.

10. That Mr. O-something Kahn is a real smack-down guitar player. Is he for hire to play with me and the 'Little Sancho Band' this summer? We'll be doing our annual outdoor concert; the 'Blackhills Native American Nam Jam For Peace' in Sioux Falls, SD. I'm so impressed with his Jimi-esk and Stevie Ray-esk soul sounds and I'd like to turn him loose on the Sturgis, Pine Bluff and Rosebud crowd. Get the cameras ready cuz I'm betting the girls will be shedding their clothes when they get a load of Big O and his stack of Reasonamps 50's! I mostly strum a Gibson LP Jr. and try to look and sing like Ronnie VanZant.

Obeid lights up stages around St. Louis 2-3 times a week. Good luck prying him free from either of his two bands. He is a world class player and that really comes through in is designs. The just work in the studio and on stage.

10. I speak for all of the Banditoamps faithful when I say "thanks" for taking time to give us the real scoop on your amps. If you have any other comments for the Bandito readers, here's your chance, go for it.........

Thanks for this opportunity! Ya’ll come check out our site!

Sincerley,

Anthony Bonadio

The secret torture chamber of the mad doctor, Anthony Bonadio, aka "Little Sancho"

El Magnifico, the story of El Bandito:

Sorry folks, but Bandy's hidden camera interview is being loaded onto the site even as we speak. Unfortunately, his video interview got mixed up with the 30th 'tell all' secret interview with the geniuses at the Barama Obama ACORN Offices in Chicago. Ooops amigos, we'll have to wait while the Justice Department cleans those tapes up to make sure none of the politician's names are on the tapes.

So, as soon as the Feds scrub the tapes, we'll get the real inside scoop on who el Bandito is and what is on his mind. And I'm told there are some really hot out takes from the "Hell's Half-Breed" shoot down in Puerto Bandito, Chili. Steamy hot and the 'rap' party was more decadent than the PJ Viagra parties at Hef's mansion. Wow!

"Wastin' away again in Margaritaville... searchin' for my lost shaker of salt... some people say that there's a chikita to blame, but I know, it's my own damn fault."